Comments

The part about Fitzpatrick "probably fighting for a backup job" was the best line in there, but that's common knowledge to basically everyone. Nothing much else of note.

Crazy that this prank worked. And since Deadspin ran this story, it must all be legal? I know that some places allow you to legally record a private phone conversation without disclosing it to the other party, but this was a third party doing it who didn't disclose they were on the line. I'm rather surprised this didn't violate some law.

Most states have charges for simply eavesdropping, but choosing Dominik to impersonate was a worse decision - Florida's a two-party consent state (every participant in a telephone conversation must consent to be recorded), so the pranksters and Deadspin could potentially face Florida criminal and civil penalties.

It's very likely illegal, but that didn't stop Gawker from running the story on the stolen iPhone 4 prototype they bought a couple of years ago. That's how journalism works. Next step is to claim they didn't know it was illegal and refuse to identify the source because of their journalistic "ethics."

Potentially the even bigger dick move may be Deadspin setting these young guys up to get prosecuted. Once this was found out, the NFL would have been all over it, anyway, but they sure weren't going to miss it once Deadspin posted the transcript and audio.

Interestingly, I've seen a couple places now refusing to link to Deadspin or post quotes because they weren't sure yet of the legalities. I'd have thought Deadspin would have locked that down prior to running with it. We shall see.

Actually, it's a great story. Better than the conversation itself. You can't make stuff like that up.

I guess what I really want to say is, you've already judged the whole situation from the headline, but you shouldn't without reading. Personally, I think those kids were pretty smart and bold in taking advantage of the circumstances.